Well if I get the 600 mil fee and clear then ill buy 4 sections. On to of the work buildings I’d build my house in the middle so that my house is at least a mile from the edge of my property. I’d sill start the distillery and orchard but with the larger amount of land I’d set the property to be fully self sustainable.
With 1280 acres I’d create a ranch focusing on creating sustainable breeding populations with enough genetic diversity that I wouldn’t need to bring in outside stock. I’d also trying and diversify the types of animals and not just have cattle but I don’t know if there is enough land. The next 640 would focus on sustainable agriculture and not bringing in anything from the outside. We would need to keep our own seeds and produce fertilizer from the cattle. Focusing on crop rotation would be critical and we’d probably need to rotate the 640 ag acres through the 1280 grazing acres. It would be a full time job to manage the total property so that we only exported products and didn’t need to import anything aside from the basic raw materials.
The property should generate plenty of revenue from the sale of excess goods plus the spirits.so I’d probably still be able to make 3% on my money
Having the full $600M doesn’t change any of my answers, except that I might actually buy and/or have built the arena my WNBA and D-League teams play in, as opposed to being a tenant in someone else’s building.
I’d set up a bunch of businesses that could function perpetually without any particular need to turn a profit. One of them woukd be a research intstitute explicitly pursuing pointless and futile lines of inquiry. Another would be an arts institute allowing animators, craftspeople, cooks, storytellers etc to work in collaboration on cross-genre projects. And so on.
I would first pay off our house and our cars–Hubs is nearly paid off and mine not so much so even though it’s a used car (a 2010 Nissan Versa) which I only purchased about a year ago. Next would be to set aside enough money to make sure that our son can either go to college or vocational school or, failing that, there will be enough to make sure he is taken care of for the rest of his life (he’s autistic and we’re not sure what the future holds, frankly).
I don’t know if I would quit my job, since I do enjoy it so much even though it’s just a part time job (school cafeteria) but I’m sure Hubs would quit his and spend his time volunteering because that’s where his true passion lies.
I know we would take a vacation…to where, that would be a mystery since I’d want to go to WDW (a favorite place of mine) and I’m sure Hubs would want to take an Alaskan cruise (which is something we both want to do but can’t afford currently). We’d probably end up doing both. I’d love to be able to stay in a really, REALLY fancy hotel (The Swan and Dolphin comes to mind) at WDW, too.
After that, who knows? We’d probably donate some of it to charity and the rest just sock it away for a rainy day since you never know what’s going to happen or when. We’re not people with expensive tastes, that’s for sure. We’re comfortable being moderately poor (by that I mean, I make around 10K per year and Hubs makes around 55 or so, which isn’t middle class, but it ain’t dirt poor either). We don’t NEED a lot of things to make us happy.
Get an accountant. Get a other accountant to audit the first one.
Get a lawyer. Get another lawyer to watch that lawyer.
After that nonsense, payoff debts. Buy a home in the Garden District of New Orleans for first quarter, another one somewhere on a lake to do some fishing and a large ranch near where I live now in North Texas.
A personal assistant, a live in therapist for our son with autism and a chef/masseuse.
Plus a 20 room mansion that I would run around wearing Kleenex boxes as shoes!
In Aus, lottery winnings aren’t taxed…until you put them in the bank and they start accruing interest which** is** regarded as taxable income.
First thing, I’d buy the house I currently live in (renting at the moment) AND the house next door (they’re on the same title). That’d probably be $1.8 million or so.
Then I’d buy the vacant block of land across the road, where the current owner is threatening to build a 9.5 metre house which will block the ocean views for up to 30 current residents. I’d build a single storey residence to provide holidays for disadvantaged women and kids from the city, and employ staff to manage it. Land would cost $1 million, house probably about $500k or so. Staff, from $40k per annum.
Houses and new cars for all my kids. $3.5 million.
A holiday house in Far North Queensland, maybe $250k
Private school education for all grandchildren from Yr 7 on, app $40k per child per year. For those who want to go to university, all their fees paid upfront so they don’t start their working life in debt.
Rough holidays in SE Asia, luxury holidays in Great Britain and the US. Visit Antarctica, do a trip right around Australia in a 4WD and camping trailer.
I’d give $10 million each to a few charities, probably the lesser-known ones rather than the biggies like WWF, The Salvos or Greenpeace.
And as for the other $500 million or whatever…sheesh, I wouldn’t have the foggiest idea.
Take care of my mother in her care home and have someone make clothes for her. (you have no idea how hard it is to find clothes for the really elderly) Also hire a 24 hour staff to wait on her and take her to doctor’s appointments.
Buy the house next to me and get rid of the annoying neighbor. Then tear that house down and build a new house for myself there. Get the dent in my car fixed.
Charity.
Build an ice rink in my town with separate olympic and hockey arenas with expansion areas for 2 more sheets of ice. Make my town a center of development for recreational figure skating.
More seriously, maybe move to Costa Rica. Tropical climate, lots of whitewater paddling opportunities, supposedly pretty friendly to an English speaker. Certainly my big lottery win would enable a paddling tour of the United States. Maybe establish a compound for my Hoosier paddling friends in West Virginia and Tennessee.
There would be an initial flurry of activity, obviously. I’d have to get a proper attorney and an accountant, and I’d set them to tracking down anyone to whom I have ever owed more than $100 and pay that back. There are a handful of people who have done a lot to help me over the years, and I’d do something for them – my best friend from college is trying to get into medical school, for example, and if she can get herself into a program she likes, I’d have a trust fund set up to cover the costs.
At some point, I’d probably sit down and figure out where the rest of it goes when I die. A lot of it would go to places like Planned Parenthood (“This money is specifically to be spent on whatever needs it. I don’t care if that’s breast cancer screenings, or prenatal care, or setting up an assembly line for abortions. If the community needs it, do that.”) and the MSPCA/ASPCA.
But after that, I think I’d just go about my business, and enjoy not having to worry about running out of money ever again. Even if I leaked money in every direction, I don’t think I could spend $600 million in one lifetime. I’d just always have the rent and bill money on hand, and be able to buy a new laptop without having to agonize over it.
Pay off all of my debts - including when people have given me temporary housing or helped me financially.
Pay off the debts of all of my immediate family members. Buy each of them a house that they can afford to maintain on their own.
Various charities.
Hire someone to invest my money properly.
When I am not in college, travel as much as I possibly can. Spend the rest of my life gaining as much knowledge and experiencing the world as much as I can. Be a forever-student. Because money will no longer be a concern, my efforts can instead be in the pursuit of intellectual contributions to the scientific community.
I grew up very poor, so… I literally cannot imagine what it would be like making 250,000 a year, let alone having 600 million. There reaches a point where it is unfathomable. I can’t imagine being able to spend that in my lifetime, even if I fully supported my siblings and parents for their lifetimes as well. We’re all pretty frugal.
I was going to ask if I got the entire $600 mil, or if it was post-tax. Then I realized it’s a moot point. Rule of thumb for cash payout instead of annuity is you get about 1/3 face value after taxes. So I still wind up with $200 mil.
SWMBO and I each get $1 mil mad money. I then get with a financial advisor and set up investments, trust funds, etc. We then pay off all debt, finish the house renovations, get new cars.
One of the trust funds I set up will be to fund my dream: the School for the Martial Arts. K-12, elevated educational standards on the academic side, Taekwondo on the physical activity side.
Hire an experienced jet pilot on call to fly us wherever we want, whenever we want.
Hire a full-time tutor to (a) work on the Firebug with his homework, and (b) step in as his teacher if we decide to travel during the school year.
Refurbish and expand the house. Buy the house next door from its current occupants, who are probably fairly temporary anyway. Move all my basement workroom stuff into the basement next door, so that our basement can be entirely living space. Turn the rest of the house next door into our guest house for friends and family when they visit.
Put a good chunk of money into Alzheimer’s/dementia research, and another chunk of money into lobbying Congress to pony up even more for that cause.
